Prem Round 5

First topic message reminder :

Sides for the game against Sale tomorrow:

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs SALE SHARKS
Gallagher Premiership, Round 5
Friday 18 October, 2024
Kick-off: 7.45pm

15 George Furbank (c)
14 George Hendy
13 Tommy Freeman
12 Rory Hutchinson
11 Ollie Sleightholme
10 Fin Smith
9 Tom James

1 Emmanuel Iyogun
2 Robbie Smith
3 Trevor Davison
4 Gavin Thornbury
5 Chunya Munga
6 Angus Scott-Young – 50th Saints appearance
7 Tom Pearson
8 Henry Pollock

Replacements:
16 Curtis Langdon
17 Tarek Haffar
18 Elliot Millar Mills
19 Callum Hunter-Hill
20 Josh Kemeny
21 Archie McParland
22 Tom Litchfield
23 James Ramm

SALE TEAM TO FACE SAINTS:

15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Waisea Nayacalevu, 12 Sam Bedlow, 11 Tom O’Flaherty, 10 Rob du Preez, 9 Gus Warr; 1 Si McIntyre, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 4 Ernst van Rhyn, 5 Hyron Andrews, 6 Tom Curry, 7 Ben Curry (c), 8 Dan du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Ethan Caine, 17 Tumy Onasanya, 18 James Harper, 19 Ben Bamber, 20 Sam Dugdale, 21 Nye Thomas, 22 Tom Curtis, 23 Luke James.

Some strange positional decisions there, Pollock at 8, all 100kg of him, when you have Pearson a 7 who as quite a bit of experience playing there, whereas Pollock is an out and out 7.

Thornbury starting, again a very light lock by todays standards, when Munga is available and has hardly played this season.

Good to see Freeman at 13 allowing space for Hendy who I rate very highly.

I would have liked to see a face off between LCD and Langdon, I should think Langdon is pretty pi$$ed off at LCD being ahead of him in the England stakes

Geordie wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

mountain man wrote:Good game overall.
From England perspective Steward, Chessum and JvP good. For all those saying Mercer should be in squad he was anonymous.

Steward losing his shirt has been great for his development. He's really pushed on this season. He looks desperate to prove a point and challenge for the spot.

Another solid showing from Joe Heyes as well as Joe Woodward in midfield. Dan Kelly was very good, getting back to his all action best though there's another gear for him to refind I think.

Seb Atkinson was at the heart of everything Glaws did well. He and Llewellyn formed a really nice centre combination for Glaws.

Do you think he'll be with you next season...or in Ireland?

Well I'd hope he'd still be at Tigers. Munster did make a signing in the centre last summer to cover for Frisch leaving. That was the rumoured reason they were very keen on Kelly, no chance Tigers were going to let him leave mid contract without a large amount on money changing hands. Munster seem to have some options now. Connacht picked up Piers O'Connor to allow Tom Farrell to move to Munster so I'm hoping there's not much centre recruitment left. Ulster have some bright talents.

I'd hope he'd stay on at Tigers, he's come through with a young cohort of guys that are making up a chunk of the first team. Ireland have good options in the centres in the short term and some emerging talent for after that, if it's international rugby he wants England is a better route for him I'd have thought. Now with an attack coach who seems to be pushing our backs on and an experienced head coach in place Tigers should be a good place for him but you never know.